Question I need help diagnosing a recurrent system crash when 3d gaming.

[kukarata]

Hello. Almost every 3D gaming session ends with a system crash. Crash happens with almost no other activity, including 2D games. Crash looks like the last frame freezed or a full solid color, usually with a repeating fraction of audio. A few times, on desktop too, I've gotten a slow moment with cut audio, as if it was about to crash, but without it happening. Once or twice, the reset button on the tower hasn't reset the PC from these crashes. Before, the crashes used to show a bluescreen with a nvlddmkm.sys error, but not anymore.

Facts:

1. It's not a temperature issue: it has happened with the CPU below 70c° and GPU at 74c°. Heat from vents after crash confirms it's not the problem.
2. It's not a software issue that's unrelated to the drivers, because I've made a full PC reset and reinstalled Windows 8.1. I also updated the BIOS while doing it. Problem has persisted.

Current suspicions:

1. Driver issue. I have the faint impression that the problem started months ago with a graphics driver update. Don't remember which I had before, but it had been a long time since I had updated. Have tried plenty of versions since then without avail. Currently using the earliest I could find: 388.13. Nvidia doesn't list drivers before 2020, or I don't know how to search for them.
2. Power Supply issue. The PSU might be dying, or the supply from the wall might have a problem (monitors flicker when the washing machine turns on, though It hasn't been an issue for years).
3. Some other hardware problem I don't know how to diagnose.

I've never overclocked anything in my PC. I need advice on how to further diagnose, if anyone would be so kind.

Specs:
CPU: I7-6700K
MB: Asus Maximus VIII Hero
PSU: Corsair HX 1000i
GPU: EVGA GTX 980 Ti
RAM: x4 8GB DDR4

 

[Koekieezz]

Hello. Almost every 3D gaming session ends with a system crash. Crash happens with almost no other activity, including 2D games. Crash looks like the last frame freezed or a full solid color, usually with a repeating fraction of audio. A few times, on desktop too, I've gotten a slow moment with cut audio, as if it was about to crash, but without it happening. Once or twice, the reset button on the tower hasn't reset the PC from these crashes. Before, the crashes used to show a bluescreen with a nvlddmkm.sys error, but not anymore.

Facts:

1. It's not a temperature issue: it has happened with the CPU below 70c° and GPU at 74c°. Heat from vents after crash confirms it's not the problem.
2. It's not a software issue that's unrelated to the drivers, because I've made a full PC reset and reinstalled Windows 8.1. I also updated the BIOS while doing it. Problem has persisted.

Current suspicions:

1. Driver issue. I have the faint impression that the problem started months ago with a graphics driver update. Don't remember which I had before, but it had been a long time since I had updated. Have tried plenty of versions since then without avail. Currently using the earliest I could find: 388.13. Nvidia doesn't list drivers before 2020, or I don't know how to search for them.
2. Power Supply issue. The PSU might be dying, or the supply from the wall might have a problem (monitors flicker when the washing machine turns on, though It hasn't been an issue for years).
3. Some other hardware problem I don't know how to diagnose.

I've never overclocked anything in my PC. I need advice on how to further diagnose, if anyone would be so kind.

Specs:
CPU: I7-6700K
MB: Asus Maximus VIII Hero
PSU: Corsair HX 1000i
GPU: EVGA GTX 980 Ti
RAM: x4 8GB DDR4

You're still using windows 8.1? tried windows 10?

 

[kukarata]

You're still using windows 8.1? tried windows 10?

I don't want win 10. I'll stay at 8.1 until I switch to Linux.